Tesco, Finest Viña del Cura, Reserva, Rioja, Spain 2020

Always a good buy if you like the traditional style of Rioja, this is produced for the Finest range by Baron de Ley, and is from the highly regarded 2020 vintage. The minimum ageing requirement for red Rioja reserva-level wines is three years (at least one year of which must be in oak, and at least six months in bottle) – this spent 18 months in American oak, followed by two years in bottle. You can discern the American oak, which gives a mellow, smooth, vanilla creaminess to the sweet and juicy raspberry and blackberry fruit flavours. Warm and well-priced.